~ The story of our adventures and discoveries travelling Europe

Week 30C, Netherlands, Horst

On Friday we drove south-east about 2 hours to Horst which is only about 10 minutes from the Netherlands/German border. It was our first time staying at a camp site in a small apartment but it worked out well and we loved it. The kids enjoyed playing on the go-karts. Sadly it required too much pressure on my ankle for me to get them to move but Karen had a go!

On the way to Horst we stopped at a BP Wild Bean Café to get a bite to eat and a couple of cappachinos. They weren’t too bad.

We were not staying in Horst for any reason in particular except because we had difficulty finding a place to stay from which we could go to the Kröller-Müller Museum and also be closer to the next town in Germany called Roil. Unfortunately we had to drive 100 km on Thursday morning right back to where we came from to go to the museum but it was worth the effort. Okay, that sounds crazy I know but this is one place we remember from our OE in 1994 so we wanted to show the kids. The museum itself has a large collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh and is located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park. Last time we went we biked in through the National Park to the museum. This time, with the kids and the uncertain weather conditions, we drove to the museum directly and then after looking around at the art we went for a bike ride in the park – yes even I carefully got on the bike, even with my walking stick! [The next day I felt the results so it might not have been such a good idea for me to ride on a bike until my ankle gets itself together.]

The museum is set in the lovely surroundings of the National Park and within the museum’s lawns and spots throughout the park there is a collection of sculptures.

Here are photos of some of the paintings I found interesting along with a few of my favourite Van Gogh’s (by the way I have only taken a photo of a part of the paintings so am not showing the full work below). Van Gogh’s 1888 Cafe Terrace By Night and 1890 Chestnut Trees:

Van Gogh’s self-portrait and 1888 Bridge at Arles:

George Seurat’s 1889-1890 Le Chahut and Auguste Renor’s 1877 Au cafe:

I also like Paul Signac’s 1884 Port-en-Bessin, La Valleuse

And more modern works with shapes:

After lunch we found some bikes and had some fun biking through the park:

The next day we moved on again, this time to Germany and a much longer drive.